


words are insufficient

by imadetheline



Series: learning, little by little [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, No Incest, and luke is a ball of sunshine, just in case someone wasn't clear, vader is touch starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28807071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imadetheline/pseuds/imadetheline
Summary: And then Vader moves. It could have been a shift of the foot or just a twitch of his arm, but Luke knows it’s not: Vader’s arm turns into his hand for the space of a breath.The Force screams of regret and longing and memories, but mostly surprise: surprise that Luke would show him affection. Then Vader pivots, his cape and the darkness once again whipping around him, all emotions sucked back behind impenetrable shields as he storms from the room, and the moment is gone.
Relationships: Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader
Series: learning, little by little [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100993
Comments: 20
Kudos: 179
Collections: Luke and Vader Bonding





	words are insufficient

**Author's Note:**

> written for this request on tumblr:
> 
> "hi! i love your Luke & Vader fics, and thanks for taking requests! whenever you're able, i'd love one where Luke realizes Vader is extremely touch-starved and has had little to no positive human interaction for about two decades, so he decides to give his father some affection (i realize this probably isn't much of a story to some, but i love Luke & Vader h/c fluff)"
> 
> thank you so much! and I'm sorry it took so long lol. i also love luke and vader h/c fluff. hope you like this!!
> 
> (also this kinda takes place simultaneously with the previous fic in this series)

Luke doesn’t really think about it. All he knows is that he’s been on the Executor for a week, and his father is standing next to him in pain. Vader’s darkness seems to absorb the light of hyperspace that reflects through the viewport. Luke doesn’t bother looking at the mesmerizing blue; he’s still turned towards his father. The Force swirls with the pain and the grief and the anger in the silence. Vader’s respirator is drowned beneath it. But his father had listened to him, had told him his mother’s name when he’d asked.  _ Padme Amidala. _

So no, Luke doesn’t think about it. He just reaches out a trembling hand toward his father, and it lands lightly on the man’s arm. 

For the space of a thought, everything freezes around them, his father going impossibly still under his fingers. The blue of hyperspace flashes over the darkness of the skeletal mask as it stares out the viewport. The leather is rough under his fingertips, beneath is unyielding as durasteel. Even the anger and darkness that swirls around his father has stopped, the whipping tendrils frozen. It’s as if Luke’s action has stopped the galaxy, as if everything is holding its breath, waiting… waiting.

And then Vader moves. It could have been a shift of the foot or just a twitch of his arm, but Luke knows it’s not: Vader’s arm turns into his hand for the space of a breath.

The Force screams of regret and longing and memories, but mostly surprise: surprise that Luke would show him affection. Then Vader pivots, his cape and the darkness once again whipping around him, all emotions sucked back behind impenetrable shields as he storms from the room, and the moment is gone.

Luke’s hand falls back to his side slowly as he watches the door slide shut with a hiss. He stares at the black durasteel for a moment longer, feeling his father’s presence move farther away. And then he turns back to the viewport, a smile tugging at his lips. His father had told him his mother’s name.  _ Padme.  _ It sounds beautiful. Luke’s sure she was beautiful as well. 

But more than that, his father had leaned into Luke’s touch on his arm. Even if it was unconscious, it still means there’s hope, hope for the light inside Vader that Luke knows is there. His smile falls for a moment as he tries to guess at the last time someone had touched Vader without malice, the last time his father had  _ allowed _ someone that close to him. He can’t imagine it’s recent.

His mind drifts to Leia and her warming hand in his when she’d comforted him after a nightmare, or her head on his shoulder when she’d dozed off in a meeting. Luke can’t help the small chuckle that escapes him as he remembers that. Or Han’s arm slung around his shoulder, ruffling his hair, affection in his voice as he’d teased him. He misses them. But he can’t imagine life without their kind touches, full of love and loyalty. No wonder his father had turned into the first glimpse of affection he’d been shown.

It’s then that Luke vows to show his father that there’s still love for him, that Luke still cares, even after everything. He can’t help caring--it’s who he is--and he’ll make sure his father knows it.

The viewport draws his attention once again. The blue of the stars dance in his eyes and play across his face as if they are his aunt brushing her thumb across his cheekbones and pushing the blond strands from his eyes. He smiles a bit sadly at the memory, but he leans into the touch of the stars as his father had allowed himself for a moment to lean into Luke’s.

<<<>>>

Luke tries it again a few days later.

They’re training and Luke groans, pulling himself up from the floor. That has to be the fifth time Vader’s knocked him to the ground in the two hours they’ve been sparring. And that last time, he’d definitely landed on his shoulder wrong. He stands and swipes at the sweat on his forehead, pushing sticky blond strands off his face before he rolls his shoulder, wincing as it pulls at the aching muscles.

“Are you injured?” comes Vader’s bass and Luke’s touched by the obvious concern radiating across their bond.

He glances back at his father, a formidable figure at the other end of the small training hall. The practice lightsaber slightly undercuts his menacing nature where it hangs in his hand instead of his usual red one, but it’s not by much. He still towers over Luke, and his presence is more than enough to frighten anyone. Except for Luke, that is.

He smiles and just nods toward his shoulder, “Just landed on it wrong. It’s not a big deal.”

Vader hesitates, and Luke can tell he’s struggling not to tell him to go straight to the medbay, but finally, he just says, “That’s enough for today.” 

And Luke, for once, agrees. They’ve been going at it all morning, either forms or sparring, and Luke is sore. He nods and walks across the room to shelve the practice lightsaber dangling from his prosthetic fingers. His father meets him there, putting away the one he’d been using. Before Luke can put his beside it, Vader snatches it from his hand, running his fingers over it and bringing it up to his mask as if examining it for broken components.

Luke turns to snap at him about personal space before he senses the hesitation in his father’s presence, in his stance: he’s stalling. So he pushes down his admonishments and waits.

Sure enough, a few moments later, Vader speaks, still looking down at the lightsaber hilt in his hands instead of Luke, “Your skills have improved greatly in a very short time.”

Luke can’t help the scoff as his shoulder twinges again, “Yeah right, that’s why you knocked me down so many times today.”

At that, Vader finally turns, his mask tilting down to regard Luke, “I have trained for longer than you have been alive. That you are even able to hold your own at all, able to get back up again, is something to be proud of, my son.”

Something warm blooms in Luke’s chest at the praise and pride in his father’s voice, and his cheeks warm as he looks down, unable to meet the impassive stare of the mask. All his life, he’s longed to make his father proud, and maybe he’s finally managed it.

And so he tries again and reaches a hand out for his father’s arm. 

This time the galaxy doesn’t freeze. It just slows as Vader shifts his arm into Luke’s touch, quicker this time. His Force presence is like molasses as it curls around Luke protectively. A small smile stretches across Luke’s face, and he squeezes the leather gently, feeling the durasteel beneath. “It’s only because I had such a great teacher.” And this time, it’s Luke who drops his hand and turns away, crossing the training hall.

Despite his sore and aching muscles, he feels warm and light on his feet as he glances over his shoulder. His father hasn’t moved, training saber still clutched tightly in his gloved hands. Luke grins and opens the door with a flick of his wrist.

<<<>>>

The next time he needs to get his father’s attention, he taps him on the shoulder instead of calling his name. 

His father is deep in meditation, but there’s been a development with the emperor that he knows Vader would like to hear. And so he just reaches for his shoulder where he’s sitting in the meditation chamber and taps him. When nothing happens, he rests his hand there, on top of the cape, hoping the warmth will bring Vader from the trance. He’s not sure why he doesn’t just call him. But he waits.

And then, “Yes, my son?” The vocoder is softer but still monotone. Luke doesn’t need it to sense the warmth and slight amusement coloring the Force. He has the sneaking suspicion Vader’s been aware of him the whole time. But he still doesn’t move his hand.

<<<>>>

Time marches on, and Vader stops flinching or freezing when Luke touches his arm or tugs on it to get his attention. And Luke, for the most part, stops thinking about it.

One day, Luke figures out how to fix a problem they’d been having with one of the fighters' engines, one they’d been trying to fix for a week. And he’s so excited he doesn’t even hesitate to grab his father’s hand to pull him towards the hangar as he explains how he’d managed to solve it.

The Force nearly explodes with warmth and fondness. Luke can almost see his father’s smile. And then Vader does something that almost stops Luke in his tracks and succeeds in making him stop midsentence: he squeezes back, his gloved fingers wrapping around Luke’s as if Luke is something precious to treasure.

Luke just starts talking again and continues to pull his father to the hangar, hoping his father doesn’t notice the tears that prick at his eyes even as he sends a wave of love back across their bond.

And from then on, Luke isn’t the only one who gives out random touches and reminders of affection.

Sometimes his father rests a hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly, or ruffles his blond hair while Luke tries to scramble away from the gloved hand, a poor impression of a scowl hiding the laughter that threatens to burst forth from him at Vader’s open fondness.

And it’s rarer, but sometimes Luke will hug his father, wrapping around him and burying his head in Vader’s chest when he needs comfort. Or when he can tell his father needs comfort, especially after calls with the emperor. 

It’s then that they just stand there, Luke clinging to Vader like a small child. But Luke doesn’t care, not when he’d been denied this when he was young, been longing for a father for years. And Vader doesn’t seem to mind either, his hand resting lightly on the back of Luke’s head, the son he’d thought dead for nearly two decades.

So no, Luke doesn’t really have to think about showing his father the light.

**Author's Note:**

> so i have quite a few requests and i wanted to ask people who read my fics if they rather that i post each request (the one-shot ones at least) as a new chapter in one fic, or post each story separately? cause i can make a fic into a collection for prompt fills or i can continue posting them individually. pls lmk if you guys have a preference, either in the comments or on tumblr. thank you for reading :)
> 
> If you guys liked it leave a comment. They make my day! Seriously I love reading them so please leave me one cause they motivate me to write more! if you guys have ideas for other stories send me an ask on tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/imadetheline) or just yell about stuff with me. Info about me and all my other tumblrs are [here](https://infoabtmaddie.carrd.co/#)


End file.
